University of Colorado Conference on World Affairs Faculty Chair John Griffin, at left, CU Regents Linda Shoemaker and Heidi Ganahl, CWA Community Chair Betsy Hand, keynote speaker Dava Newman and CU Chancellor Phil DiStefano lead the pack during the procession on the first day of the Conference on World Affairs on April 10, 2017. (Jeremy Papasso / Staff Photographer)

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the Conference on World Affairs had not previously worked with the Cultural Events Board at the University of Colorado. The CWA worked with the CEB to bring Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak to the conference in 2016. Wozniak was paid $50,000 for his appearance.

The Conference on World Affairs, the freewheeling annual week of speakers and panelists at the University of Colorado that turns 70 this year, has founding principles that include a commitment to the conference being free and open to all.

However, this year's student keynote speech to be delivered April 12 by Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman, and announced along with other keynotes and speeches, is neither free nor open to the public. Tickets cost $2 for students and $10 for faculty and staff.

Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman will deliver the student keynote speech April 12 at the Conference on World Affairs at the University of Colorado. (Michael Regan / Getty Images Europe)

Everything else at the conference is free and open to the public.

The move is not exactly welcomed by everyone, particularly past volunteers and staff members at the CWA who see the change as running contrary to the spirit of the conference.

Piper Jackson-Sevy worked as the student volunteer coordinator during her four years at CU and spent about a year as assistant director of public affairs for the conference after she graduated. She was part of an April 2015 mass exodus of staff and volunteers who were unhappy with then-new director John Griffin's leadership.

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Jackson-Sevy said uncertainty over whether admission would be charged and conflicting statements by Griffin on the matter led, in part, to the departures. When asked if charging admission and not letting the public attend an event runs counter to the spirit of the conference, she said it does.

"In the 60-plus years of the conference, that has never happened," she said, referring to the feeling just prior to the exodus. "This isn't supposed to be some corporate event where you pay for tickets."

CU spokesman Andrew Sorensen said in an email that the keynote speech is not open to the public, because Raisman is being brought to campus through the Cultural Events Board process, which he said involved the CWA pitching the idea to the CEB, just as other groups who bring speakers to campus would do.

"It's part of the CWA," Sorensen said. "It's just this part of CWA is for the students. They did more or less the same thing with Steve Wozniak. It's something that has been done in the past."

Wozniak, a cofounder of Apple, spoke at the conference two years ago. The event was free, but tickets were required, with students getting priority and staff, faculty and members of the public going through a lottery process.

Raisman's speech, billed as a "student keynote," is only open to students, who must pay $2, and faculty and staff, who must pay $10. There was no charge for the Wozniak tickets two years ago.

CWA spokeswoman Erin Rain said in a prepared statement that the CWA student committee pitched the Raisman speech as part of "our mission to re-engage students in the Conference on World Affairs."

Reached by phone on Saturday, longtime former CWA director Jim Palmer declined to comment. But some supporters of the CWA have expressed concern in recent years that the conference might be veering away from its founding principles.

The conference previously partnered with the Cultural Events Board for Wozniak's speech, for which he was paid $50,000. Some veterans of the conference have greeted the arrangements concerning Raisman's appearance with dismay.

Griffin, who succeeded Palmer as the CWA director, penned a guest opinion for the Daily Camera in May 2015 in which he wrote that he fully subscribed "to the principle that the conference should remain free and open to the public."

Griffin didn't respond to phone calls seeking comment for this story, and in an email referred questions to the CU office of public affairs. He also did not respond to a further request for comment on whether charging admission for an event was a departure for the conference.

Both as a CU student and after graduation, Graham Gerritsen was involved with CWA in various capacities for the better part of a decade, and left in 2015. He said with regard to charging for events that perhaps room for changes exists at CWA as it moves forward.

He added, however, that charging for events does run contrary to the spirit of the conference as he remembers it, and he recalled that an effort to charge a small price at the traditional jazz concert held at CWA was met with a bad reaction at the time.

"If that is what needs to happen to continue a great event, that is what needs to happen, I suppose," Gerritsen said.

"If they are charging for events, who am I to tell them that it's not appropriate? But it's not the CWA that I knew and loved."

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